The semi-weekly fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1887-09-02
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Aluminium is sold in leaves like gold,
and it has been employed in Leyden jars
| instead of tin foil.
Paralysis, collie. govt, rheumatism, kid
| ney diseases, blindness and insanity may
all come, it seems, from drinking water
with lead in it.
NJ LeblOnd has discovered that there
are periodical variations of intensity in
| terrestrial currents in direct relation with
the movement of the moon or tides.
A German statist announces that mari
has twice the attraction for lightning
which chalk has, and that sand has nire
times and clay twenty-five times as
; much.
Very anciert observatorles are said to
have been erected on the top of the tenn
pie of Belus, at Babylon; on the tomb of
Osymandyas, in Egypt; and at Benares.
The first in authentic history was erected
by Ptolemy Softer at Alexandria, about
800 B. c.
From an examination of butter from
various parts of France, NJ. f. Declaux
learns that, contrary to general opinion,
the quality of this article depends largely
on the breed of cattle and their food,
the pasture-soil, influence of season, age
of milk, etc.
A new method of making wheels is
in use in Wilkes Barre, Penn, by which
three men, who formerly made eighteen
car-wheels a day, can now make one
every minute, or go day. A steel case
is used instead of one of sand, and when
removed the wheel is at once ready for
the axle.
By means of a mixture of pulverized
magnesium, chloride of potash and sui
phide of anthony, MeSsrs. Goldicke
and Miethe produce an explosive, light
ming like illumination, which is likely to
to be of mnch value in photography. The
flash lasts one-fortieth of a second, and
provides cheap and practical method
of securing instantaneous pictures at
night or in dark places.
The discovery of a new gas is a rare
and important event to chemists. Such
discovery has been announced in Ger
many by DR.. TheOdor Curtius, who has
succeeded in preparing the long sought
hydride of nitrogen, amidogen, diamide,
or hydrazine, as it is variously called.
This remarkable body, which has hith-
ertO baffied all attempts at isolation, is
now shown to be a gas, perfectly stable
up to a very high temperature, of a pc
OuIIoI OAOl UiIClluS HUM ChoC VI Oil
monia, exceedingly soluble in water, and
of basic properties. In composition it is
nearly Identical with ammonia, both
being compounds of nitrogen and hydro
gen.
DR.. Hellmann's researches show that in
Schlesw:g- Holstein, during a period of
ten years, of all the buildings struck by
lightning only 8 per cent. of those with
''hard' roofing caught fire, while IS per
cent. of those with soft roofing caught
fire. The risk from lightning to churches
and bell towers was thirty-nine times,
and to windmills tifty-two times greater
than to ordinary hard-roOfed buildings.
The danger from lightning decreases also
with the increase of the number Of houses
in a given district. In the rural districts
of Prussia the risk is five times greater
than in the cities. TWAS found that the
geological features of the ground had
much to do with the frequency of light
ming strokes, fiat and moist lands, espe-
cially with loan, being most exposed to
the deadly thunderbclt.